March 1 (Bloomberg) -- The Dutch government plans
additional austerity measures totaling 4.3 billion euros ($5.6
billion) next year in a bid to narrow the budget deficit to
within European Union limits, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

“We need the additional measures in 2014 to get the
government finances in order,” Rutte told a news conference
today in The Hague. The budget cuts would come on top of a 16
billion-euro austerity package over the next four years. “I’m
optimistic; the end goal is to tackle the problems we have in
the Netherlands,” Rutte said.

The government plans to freeze salaries for one year for
civil servants and health-care workers, saving 2 billion euros,
the Ministry of Finance said today in a statement. A tax break
worth 640 million euros for companies will be scrapped, and the
Cabinet also plans to save 700 million euros by abstaining from
inflation correction on price-sensitive government spending.

The Netherlands, the euro region’s fifth-largest economy,
has been in breach of the EU’s 3 percent of gross domestic
product limit since 2009. The government’s measures should cut
the deficit by 0.4 percentage point, bringing it within EU
limits in 2014, the Finance Ministry said.

The government package includes plans to invest around 500
million euros to boost the economy in 2014. It is also reserving
300 million euros per year to compensate for the loss of
purchasing power for those on low incomes.

The deficit will hit 3.3 percent of GDP in 2013 and would
climb to 3.4 percent the following year without the additional
budget measures, the government’s planning agency, CPB, said
yesterday. The European Commission is more pessimistic,
predicting a deficit of 3.6 percent on Feb. 22.

“We think it’s important to get this done quickly,” Rutte
said. “I’m doing this because I love the nation and the
European Union’s budget-deficit rules are in this case of
secondary importance.”